[Originally published in Seattle Weekly, October 7, 2014]
Leave out Robert Downey, Jr., and The Judge looks like a painfully old-fashioned exercise in the Tradition of Quality. Big-city defense attorney Hank Palmer (that’s Downey) comes home to Indiana just in time to see his father (Robert Duvall), a respected judge, arrested for vehicular homicide. Father and son do not care for each other, but the dominoes are poised to let Hank stick around and mount a spirited defense.
In the course of the trial, family dynamics are tested, Hank brushes up against an old girlfriend (Vera Farmiga), and zero coolness points are awarded to anyone involved in the movie. Well, maybe Billy Bob Thornton earns a few as a sleek prosecutor (think George C. Scott in Anatomy of a Murder), but otherwise this is a very square film, suitable for limited Oscar buzz and a safe choice for seeing with your parents.
Most of us at Parallax View are no longer actively reviewing new films but we still try to keep up with them. And after decades of making lists like this, it’s still part of our routine. So while, even a week into January 2026, we are still catching up on some of the most celebrated films of 2025, we can’t help ourselves. Though far from definitive, these are snapshots of what we have been able to see, and what impressed us, over the last year.
Contributors in reverse alphabetical order. Films list in preferential order (unless otherwise noted).
Jeffrey Overstreet
This list of my favorite films of the year comprises only titles that opened on big screens or on streaming services in Seattle before the end of the calendar year. Thus, a lot of titles you see on other 2025 lists are missing here because they reached Seattle moviegoers after January 1, 2026, and some titles were popular on 2024 lists but didn’t reach Seattle until early 2025.
You’ll find reviews of some of these films at jeffreyoverstreet.com, my new website (under construction). More reviews of these titles are coming soon.
THE TOP NINE Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh) Eephus (Carson Lund) It Was Just An Accident (Jafar Panahi) No Other Land (Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor) On Becoming A Guinea Fowl (Rungano Nyoni) One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson) The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson) Seven Walks With Mark Brown (Vincent Barré and Pierre Creton) Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson)
ELEVEN RUNNERS-UP I’m still arguing with myself, so any of these could climb into the top ten in the coming weeks: A Little Prayer (Angus MacLachlan) Blue Sun Palace (Constance Tsang) Bono: Songs Of Surrender (Andrew Dominik) Hard Truths (Mike Leigh) Harvest (Athina Rachel Tsangari) Hedda (Nia DaCosta) Left-Handed Girl (Shih-Ching Tsou) Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross) Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk (Sepideh Farsi) The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho) Train Dreams (Clint Bentley)
Richard T. Jameson
From the top: Sinners One Battle after Another It Was Just an Accident The Secret Agent Sentimental Value Train Dreams Blue Moon Sorry, Baby Sirāt A House of Dynamite
Continuing more or less in order: The Mastermind, Die My Love, Nouvelle Vague, No Other Choice, 28 Years Later, Weapons, Bugonia, After the Hunt, Nuremberg, Freaky Tales, Superman
Have yet to see Hamnet, Marty Supreme, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Materialists
Robert Horton
First Tier: Blue Moon (Richard Linklater) It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi) One Battle After Another(Paul Thomas Anderson) The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendoça Filho)
Second Tier: Sirat (Oliver Laxe) Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos) Die My Love (Lynne Ramsay) When Fall Is Coming (Francois Ozon) Marty Supreme(Josh Safdie) Weapons (Zach Cregger) Sound of Falling (Mascha Schiliniski) Hamnet (Chloé Zhao) Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier) House of Dynamite(Kathryn Bigelow)
Not-Inconsiderable-Pleasure Tier: No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook) Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater) Friendship (Andrew DeYoung) Ballad of Wallis Island (James Griffiths) 28 Years Later (Danny Boyle)
Michael B. Jordan and cast in Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners.’ Photo credit: Warner Bros.
Kathy Fennessy
1. One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson) 2. Sinners (Ryan Coogler) 3. The Secret Agent / O Agente Secreto (Kleber Mendonça Filho) 4. Familiar Touch (Sarah Friedland) 5. 40 Acres (R.T. Thorne) 6. Sirāt (Oliver Laxe) 7. Blue Sun Palace (Constance Tsang) 8. Blue Moon (Richard Linklater) 9. It Was Just an Accident / Un Simple Accident(Jafar Panahi) 10. The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt)
1. Sinners, Ryan Coogler 2. One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson 3. Caught by the Tides, Jia Zhangke 4. It Was Just an Accident, Jafar Panahi 5. Souleymane’s Story, Boris Lojkine 6. Seed of the Sacred Fig, Mohammad Rasoulof 7. I’m Still Here, Walter Salles 8. Peter Hujar’s Day, Ira Sachs 9. The Mastermind, Kelly Reichardt 10. Blue Moon, Ethan Hawke.
Honorable Mentions: The Featherweight, Robert Kolodny; Grand Theft Hamlet, Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane
A Baker’s Dozen (plus one, because I just won’t be constrained by the whole number thing) of my favorites for 2025, in ascending order: 14. Merrily We Roll Along (Maria Friedman) 13. The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt) 12. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Rungano Nyoni) 11. It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi) 10. Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor) 9. Wake Up, Dead Man (Rian Johnson) 8. Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos) 7. Eephus (Carson Lund) 6. Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh) 5. La Grazia (Paolo Sorrentino) 4. The Life of Chuck (Mike Flanagan) 3. Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier) 2. Sinners (Ryan Coogler) and finally, pure catnip… 1. Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater)
I also liked: Becoming Led Zeppelin (Bernard Macmahon), Chain Reactions (Alexandre O. Philippe), Final Destination: Bloodlines (Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein), KPop Demon Hunters (Chris Applehans, Maggie Kang), The Long Walk (Francis Lawrence), The Monkey (Osgood Perkins), One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson), Superman (James Gunn), 28 Years Later (Danny Boyle), Weapons (Zach Cregger)
I have not yet had a chance to see either No Other Choice (Park Chan-Wook), Blue Moon (Richard Linklater) or The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho), three movies I fully expect would stir this baker’s dozen list up a bit, but so be it— as a wise candyman once said, so little time, so much to do. Others I have yet to experience include The Ugly Stepsister, The Shrouds, A House of Dynamite, If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You, Misericordia, Dust Bunny, After the Hunt, Eddington, Jay Kelly, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Naked Gun, Splitsville and Father Mother Sister Brother, among many others. I’ll get to them in 2026, along with other non-movie-related matters. Maybe.
Sean Axmaker
1. One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson) 2. Sinners (Ryan Coogler) 3. Train Dreams (Clint Bentley) 4. Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier) 5. It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi) 6. The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho) 7. Marty Supreme (Josh Safdie) 8. Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater) 9. Hamnet (Chloe Zhao) 10. A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow)
Runners-up (and on another day may have made the list): Cloud (Japan), Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (Embeth Davidtz), The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt), No Other Choice (South Korea), Sirāt (Oliver Laxe), Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor).
Honorable mentions and memorable cinematic experiences: Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh), Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos), Caught Stealing (Darren Aronofsky), Dust Bunny (Bryan Fuller), Eephus (Carson Lund), Frankenstein (Guillermo Del Toro), Reflections in a Dead Diamond (Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani), Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson), Weapons (Zach Cregger).
There are, sadly, some significant films I have not yet seen (among them Blue Moon, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, The Sound of Falling, Father Mother Sister Brother and Peter Hujar’s Day) and hope to catch up with them soon, but as of publication this is where they stand.
Stellan Skarsgard and Renate Reinsve in Joachim Trier’s ‘Sentimental Value.’ Photo credit: Neon
As an actor and director, Robert Redford seems sincerely and deeply drawn to American mythology, from the mystic fishermen of A River Runs Through It to those western archetypes the Sundance Kid and Jeremiah Johnson to that most sacred of literary mysteries, The Great Gatsby. Every minute of The Natural oozes with the urge to create myth out of Americana, which may be why that movie feels like a Redford film even though it was directed by Barry Levinson.
A belated welcome to 2025 with one last look at the best releases of 2024
Most of us at parallax View are no longer actively reviewing new films but we still try to keep up with them. And after decades of making lists like this, it’s still part of our routine. So while, even halfway through January 2025, we are still catching up on some of the most celebrated films of 2024, we can’t help ourselves. Though far from definitive, please enjoy our picks for the best films of 2024.
Contributors in alphabetical order. Films list in preferential order (unless otherwise noted).
Sean Axmaker
1. The Brutalist (Brady Corbet) 2. All We Imagine as Light (Payal Kapadia) 3. His Three Daughters (Azazel Jacobs) 4. The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Mohammed Rasoulof) 5. Anora (Sean Baker) 6. A Complete Unknown (James Mangold) 7. Flow (Gints Zilbalodis) 8. Green Border (Agnieszka Holland) 9. Love Lies Bleeding (Rose Glass) 10. The Substance (Coralie Fargeat)
Runners-up: Challengers (Luca Guadagnino), Cuckoo (Tilman Singer), The Dead Don’t Hurt (Viggo Mortensen), Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude), Hit Man (Richard Linklater), Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood), A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg), Rebel Ridge (Jeremy Saulnier), Strange Darling (JT Mollner), Woman of the Hour (Anna Kendrick)
Adrien Brody in ‘The Brutalist.’ Photo credit: A24
Dennis Cozzalio
My usual baker’s dozen of end-of-the-year picks features an actual Baker this year, so what a way to start! I have not yet had the opportunity to see such highly touted year-end powerhouses as All We Imagine as Light, Nickel Boys, The Brutalist or Hard Truths, though Sing Sing and The Room Next Door are both on my dance card for this weekend, a couple days after the deadline to submit this list. As with every year’s list, this one seems to change from moment to moment, so it only seems like business as usual, with those six in mind as possible spoilers for the ones that did make my list of 13 Favorites of 2024, that this list might look entirely different at the end of the coming weekend, or a week or from now. But this is what it looks like at 6:44 a.m. on Thursday, January 16, 2025. I have attempted to rank them, but in all honesty, only the top three are in any way carved in granite as far as their placement on the list goes. The remaining ten could be reshuffled in as many ways mathematically as they could be reshuffled. What matters is that they are all there.
My Baker’s Dozen Favorites of 2025 1. The Beast (Bertrand Bonello) 2. Flow (Gints Zilbalodis) 3. La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher) 4. Anora (Sean Baker) 5. His Three Daughters (Azazel Jacobs) 6. Hundreds Of Beavers (Mike Cheslik) 7. The Old Oak (Ken Loach) 8. Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants) 9. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (George Miller) 10. Kinds of Kindness (Yorgos Lanthimos) 11. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat) 12. September 5 (Tim Fehlbaum) 13. Ghostlight (Alex Thompson, Kelly O’Sullivan)
In so many ways 2024 has been a terror, but as far as movies go it has good enough that another list of ten easily populates the world of my honorable mentions. In any other less bountiful year, any of these (listed alphabetically) might have made my baker’s dozen.
A Complete Unknown (James Mangold), A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg), Challengers (Luca Guadagnino), Conclave (Edward Berger), Daddio (Christy Hall), The First Omen (Arkasha Stevenson), Heretic (Scott Beck, Bryan Woods), Hit Man (Richard Linklater), Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood), My Old Ass (Megan Park)
Documentaries I Enjoyed Most: The Disappearance Of Shere Hite (2023) (Nicole Newnham), Ghost: Rite Here Rite Now (Tobias Forge, Alex Ross Perry), Made In England: The Films of Powell And Pressburger (David Hinton), Rainier: A Beer Odyssey (Isaac Olsen), Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary (Garret Price)
And Every Year Has Its Dregs (In Descending Order From Best-Worst To Worst-Worst): Gladiator 2 (Ridley Scott) Tired, dull and pointless. Denzel ashington is, as widely reported, the best thing in it, and he’s still not very good. Trap (M. Night Shyamalan) Substitute “C” for “T.” The movie that answers the question, “What would it be like to see Hayley Mills taser a shirtless serial killer nearly half her age. Answer: not as enticing as it might sound, which is a reasonable response to the whole dumb movie itself. Joker: Folie A Deux (Todd Phillips) A “fuck you” to the same audience Phillips courted all the way to the Oscars before, but it has no passion for its own conceits, especially the musical numbers. The Front Room (Max Eggers, Sam Eggers) Ugliest display of fear of the elderly I’ve seen in a movie in quite some time. And Brandy Norwood can’t act. Deadpool & Wolverine (Shawn Levy) Marvel eats itself.
Flow. Photo credit: Janus Films
David Coursen
1. The Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross) 2. Seed of the Sacred Fig (Mohammad Rasoulof) 3. Green Border (Agnieszka Holland) 4. All We Imagine as Light (Payal Kapadia) 5. Evil Does Not Exist (Ruyusuke Hamaguchi) 6. Hard Truths (Mike Leigh) 7. The Substance (Coralie Fargeat) 8. Dahomey (Mati Diop) 9. Fire Within, A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft (Werner Herzog) 10. (tie) The People’s Joker (Vera Drew) Witches (Elizabeth Sankey)
Top tier: Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross) Last Summer (Catherine Breillat) Green Border (Agnieska Holland) All We Imagine as Light (Payal Kapadia) His Three Daughters (Azazel Jacobs)
Veteran Virtuosity tier: Hard Truths (Mike Leigh) Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood) Hit Man (Richard Linklater) Trap (M. Night Shyamalan)
Wild + Crazy Virtuosity tier: Emilia Pérez (Jacques Audiard) Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude) Anora (Sean Baker) The Substance (Coralie Fargeat) The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)
Strong Enough to Honor tier: A Complete Unknown (James Mangold) Kinds of Kindness (Yorgos Lanthimos) Sing Sing (Greg Kweder) Nightbitch (Marielle Heller)
Sam Malone and Ethan Herisse in ‘Nickel Boys.’ Photo credit: Amazon MGM Studios
Richard T. Jameson
Not for the first time, I spent the greater part of a film year with a Netflix miniseries poised ahead of everything else on a potential “best things seen on screen” list: Steven Zaillian’s mesmerizing Ripley. In spirit, it’s still there. As for mere movies, here’s an alphabetical Ten (or so) Best.
All We Imagine as Light Anora The Brutalist Evil Does Not Exist Flow His Three Daughters Juror No. 2 Last Summer… Nickel Boys Strange Darling The Substance
Least celebrated also-rans: The Animal Kingdom, The Dead Don’t Hurt, Handling the Undead, Horizon (part one), Monkey Man, Rebel Ridge
Moira Macdonald
Favorite Films of 2024, listed alphabetically (as published in The Seattle Times): The Crime Is Mine Evil Does Not Exist His Three Daughters Hit Man Nickel Boys A Real Pain Sweetheart Deal The Taste of Things Wicked
Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha in ‘All We Imagine as Light.’ Photo credit: Janus Films
We welcome 2024 with one last look back at the best releases of 2023.
As most of us are no longer full-time critics, we haven’t had the same access to films as most film critics. Thus these are snapshots of what we have been able to see, and what impressed us over the last year. We’ve also invited a few old friends to join the group this year.
Also, among those we lost in 2023 was Bruce Reid, former film critic at The Stranger and longtime Parallax View partner, contributor, and friend.
Contributors listed in reverse alphabetical orders. Films listed in preferential orders (unless otherwise noted).
Ten Favorite Films of 2023 (listed alphabetically)
Asteroid City Barbie The Boy and the Heron Four Daughters Fremont May December No Bears (released in Seattle in February 2023) Showing Up Society of the Snow The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret Barbie The Holdovers Killers of the Flower Moon Maestro Oppenheimer Past Lives Sam Now Stop Making Sense You Hurt My Feelings
Lily Gladstone, Robert De Niro, and Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon.’ Photo credit: Apple Studios
Richard T. Jameson
Top ten in alphabetical order:
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt All of Us Strangers Anatomy of a Fall Fallen Leaves The Holdovers Killers of the Flower Moon Oppenheimer Past Lives Showing Up The Zone of Interest
Not to scorn Ferrari, Saltburn, You Hurt My Feelings, Barbie, May December, American Fiction, Poor Things, John Wick: Chapter 4, Knock at the Cabin, Maestro, The Killer, Fingernails, Nyad
Top Tier: Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki) Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt) Pacifiction (Albert Serra) All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson) All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh)
Second Tier: Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Trier) Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese) A Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell) Tori and Lokita (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne) The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)
Out of the 10, but Extremely Close Tier: Walk Up (Hong Sang-soo), Maestro (Bradley Cooper), Asteroid City (Wes Anderson), The Holdovers (Alexander Payne), R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu), Reality (Tina Satter)
Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen in ‘Fallen Leaves.’ Photo credit: MUBI
Top 10 1. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt) 2. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki) 3. Afire (Christian Petzold) 4. A Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell) 5. The Holdovers (Alexander Payne) 6. May December (Todd Haynes) 7. Enys Men (Mark Jenkin) 8. Rye Lane (Raine Allen-Miller) 9. The Five Devils (Léa Mysius) 10. Fremont (Babak Jalali)
Runners-up 11. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese) 12. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan) 13. Priscilla (Sofia Coppola) 14. Barbie (Greta Gerwig) 15. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson) 16. Past Lives (Celine Song) 17. The Killer (David Fincher) 18. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh) 19. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet) 20. Return to Seoul (Davy Chou)
David Coursen
Films listed roughly in tiers
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson) Anselm (Wim Wenders) Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
The Master Gardener (Paul Schrader) Saint Omer (Alice Diop) No Bears (Jafar Panahi) May December (Todd Haynes)
The Holdovers (Alexander Payne) Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan) Barbie (Greta Gerwig)
Honorable Mention: American Fiction (Cord Jefferson), Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt), Asteroid City (Wes Anderson), Turn Every Page (Lizzie Gottlieb), Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismaki), Strange Way of Life (Pedro Almodovar)
Dominic Sessa and Paul Giamatti in ‘The Holdovers.’ Photo credit: Focus Features
Best: (But It Goes to 11…): 1. Past Lives (Celine Song) 2. Revoir Paris (Alice Winocour) 3. You Hurt My Feelings (Nicole Holofcener) 4. John Wick Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski) 5. Carmen (Benjamin Millepied) 6. Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki) 7. Anselm (Wim Wenders) 8. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismaki) 9. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret (Kelly Fremon Craig) 10. Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg) 11. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
Next Ten: Ferrari (Michael Mann), The Night Of The 12th (Dominik Moll), It Ain’t Over (Sean Mullin), Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan), No Hard Feelings (Gene Stupnitsky), Talk To Me (Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou), May December (Todd Haynes), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (James Gunn), Barbie (Greta Gerwig), M3gan (Gerard Johnstone)
Best Revival: Stop Making Sense (In IMAX) (1984) (Jonathan Demme)
The Worst (In Descending Order): Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania (Peyton Reed), 80 For Brady (Kyle Marvin), Holy Spider (Ali Abbasi), The Exorcist: Believer (David Gordon Green), Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
Still to See: Poor Things, American Fiction, Maestro, Napoleon, Monster, 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture
1. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh) 2. Perfect Days (Wim Wenders) 3. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese) 4. R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu) 5. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos) 6. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan) 7. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt) 8. The Holdovers (Alexander Payne) 9. American Fiction (Cord Jefferson) 10. Barbie (Greta Gerwig)
Ten honorable mentions (in alphabetical order): Afire (Christian Petzold), Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet), The Eight Mountains (Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch), Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismaki), Fair Play (Chloe Domont), Maestro (Bradley Cooper), Origin (Ava DuVernay), Past Lives (Celine Song), A Thousand and One (V.A. Rockwell), You Hurt My Feelings (Nicole Holofcener)
Ten films that made filmgoing fun in 2023: Asteroid City (Wes Anderson), Bottoms (Emma Seligman), The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki), Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki), John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski), Lola (Andrew Legge), Polite Society (Nida Manzoor), Saltburn (Emerald Fennell), Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse (Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson)
Andrew Haigh in ‘All of Us Strangers.’ Photo credit: Photo credit: Searchlight Pictures
A belated welcome to 2023 with one last look back at the best releases of 2022.
As most of us are no longer full-time critics, and many other are understandably wary about seeing movies in theaters at the moment, we haven’t had the same access to films as most film critics. Thus these are snapshots of what we have been able to see, and what impressed us over the last year.
Also, among those we lost in 2022 were friends and fellow film critics John Hartl, whose love of cinema defined the Seattle Times film coverage for his 38 year-tenure as the paper’s head film critic, and Sheila Benson, who was (among other achievements) the chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times from 1981 to 1991 before moving north and making Seattle her home.
Contributors listed in reverse alphabetical orders. Films listed in preferential orders (unless otherwise noted).
Sean Axmaker
EO (Poland, Jerzy Skolimowski)
Women Talking (Sarah Polley)
No Bears (Iran, Jafar Panahi)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniels, aka Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert)
Tár (Todd Field)
The Quiet Girl (Ireland, Colm Bairéad)
Broker (South Korea, Hirokazu Koreeda)
The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg)
Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg)
Athena (France, Romain Gavras)
Honorable mentions: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras), The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh), Decision to Leave (South Korea, Park Chan-wook), Kimi (Steven Soderbergh), Marcel the Shell With Shoes On (Dean Fleischer-Camp), The Menu (Mark Mylod), The Outfit (Graham Moore), RRR (India, S.S. Rajamouli), She Said (Maria Schrader), Saint Omer (France, Alice Diop)
And these films made my year in viewing more fun: Barbarian (Zach Cregger), Catherine Called Birdy (Lena Dunham), Dead for a Dollar (Walter Hill), Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Rian Johnson), The Northman (Robert Eggers), Vengeance (B.J. Novak), X (Ti West)
David Coursen (Washington, D.C.)
Adjusted for inflation and in alphabetical order:
Top Tier: Both Sides of the Blade (Claire Denis) Holy Spider (Ali Abbasi)
Rest of the Best: Ahed’s Knee (Nadav Lapid) Ballad of a White Cow (Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moqadam) Benediction (Terrence Davies) Boy from Heaven (Tarik Saleh) Hero (Asghar Farhadi) Hive (Blerta Basholli) Hit the Road (Panah Panahi) In Front of Your Face (Hong Sang-soo) Master (Mariama Diallo) Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu)
Honorable Mention: Armageddon Time (James Gray) Happening (Audrey Diwan) Nope (Jordan Peele) Till (Chinone Chukwu)
‘Tár’ Photo credit: Florian Hoffmeister / Focus Features
Robert Cumbow
No “Top Ten” or “Best” lists for me again this year. As always I prefer to just note my favorites (and acknowledge my limitations):
FAVORITE FILMS OF 2022 Vengeance Tár The Outfit Crimes of the Future Dead for a Dollar
PROPS TO: The Banshees of Inisherin Everything Everywhere All At Once X Barbarian The Menu
APOLOGIES TO THESE THAT MIGHT MAKE THE LIST BUT I HAVEN’T SEEN THEM YET: Blonde The Fabelmans Marcel the Shell with Shoes On Elvis Decision to Leave Something in the Dirt
Kathy Fennessy
EO (Jerzy Skolimowski)
Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook)
Benediction (Terence Davies)
Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg)
Lost Illusions (Xavier Giannoli)
Happening (Audrey Diwal)
Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)
X (Ti West)
Great Freedom (Sebastian Meise)
Compartment Number 6 (Juho Kuosmanen)
‘Crimes of the Future.’ Photo credit: Nikos Nikolopoulos / Serendipity Point Films
Robert Horton
Top tier: Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg). Happening (Audrey Diwan). The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg). Tár (Todd Field).
Second tier: The Quiet Girl (Colm Bairéad). The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh). Hit the Road (Panah Panahi). In Front of Your Face (Hong Sang-soo). EO (Jerzy Skolimowski). Watcher (Chloe Okuno).
Third tier: Utama (Alejandro Loayza Grisi). The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg). Aftersun (Charlotte Wells). Close (Lukas Dhont). Three Minutes: A Lengthening (Bianca Stigter). Murina (Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic). Benediction (Terence Davies).
The 2022 movie I regarded as the best for most of the year was Watcher, the debut feature of Chloe Okuno — a film of Hitchcockian intelligence with no need to strew Hitchcock hommages.
The movie that now claims top line of my list is Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO, the kind of film with the power to adjust the world.
The 2022 movies I love most are The Banshees of Inisherin, by Martin McDonagh, and Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans.
In alphabetical order, the remainder of my Ten Best are: Broker (Hirokazu Kore-eda) Dead for a Dollar (Walter Hill) Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook) Happening (Audrey Diwan) No Bears (Jafar Panahi) Tár(Todd Field).
I also want to highlight the extraordinary beauty and power of Taylor Sheridan’s ten-part streaming series 1883.
Moira Macdonald (Seattle Times)
(in alphabetical order) The Banshees of Inisherin Everything Everywhere All at Once Tár Turning Red
A belated welcome to 2022 with one last look back at the best releases of 2021.
As most of us are no longer full-time critics, and many other are understandably wary about seeing movies in theaters at the moment, we haven’t had the same access to films as most film critics. For that reason, many of our regular contributors respectfully dropped out this year. For those of us who did participate, these are snapshots of what we have been able to see, and what impressed us over the last year.
Contributors listed in reverse alphabetical orders. Films listed in preferential orders (unless otherwise noted).
Moira Macdonald (Seattle Times)
Favorite movies of 2021
My Favorite Movie of the Year: The Power of the Dog The Movie That Gave Me the Most Joy: In the Heights The Movie I Most Wished I Could Have Seen on the Big Screen: Passing The Movie I’m Most Grateful to Have Seen on the Big Screen: Spider-Man: No Way Home The Movie That Was Exactly What I Thought It Would Be, and I Loved It: The French Dispatch The Movie That Wasn’t At All What I Thought It Would Be, and I Loved It: West Side Story The Movie With the Most Glorious Fashion: Cruella
Kodi Smit-McPhee and Benedict Cumberbatch in “The Power of the Dog.” Photo credit: Kirsty Griffin/Netflix
Richard T. Jameson
Back in 2017, the most riveting screen experience I had was season one of Mindhunter (David Fincher et al.) on Netflix. In 2021 it was another Netflix limited series, Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass, each of the seven episodes casting a spell all its own, mounting toward the extraordinary finale with its utterly unexpected swarm of conflicting emotions. Midnight Mass premiered in September. Most of the films on the Ten Best list and addenda came along later. And no, I haven’t seen Drive My Car.
1. The Lost Daughter 2. The Card Counter 3. The Power of the Dog 4. The Worst Person in the World 5. Licorice Pizza 6. Bergman Island 7. Titane 8. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn 9. Annette
I’ll forgo a tenth slot if I may salute Passing, The Last Duel, Don’t Look Up, Last Night in Soho, Dune (Part One), Red Rocket, and The Night House.
Robert Horton
1. What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? (Aleksander Koberidze, George/Germany) 2. Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, USA) 3. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan) 4. Drive My Car (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan) 5. The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, USA/Australia/New Zealand etc.) 6. Herr Bachmann and His Class (Maria Speth, Germany) 7. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Radu Jude, Romania) 8. The Velvet Underground (Todd Haynes) 9. The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier, Norway)
1.Drive My Car (Ryūsuke Hamaguchi) 2.Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Radu Jude) 3.No Sudden Move (Steven Soderbergh) 4.The Velvet Underground (Todd Haynes) 5.The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion) 6.Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson) 7.Pig (Michael Sarnoski) 8.The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier) 9.Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman) 10.The Card Counter (Paul Schrader)
Oscar Isaac in ‘The Card Counter.’ Photo credit: Focus Features
David Coursen (Washington, D.C.)
10 Best Procession (Robert Greene, US) Swimming out Til the Sea Turns Blue (Jia Zhangke, China) The Velvet Underground (Todd Haynes, U.S.) The Woman Who Ran (Hong Sang-soo, S. Korea) Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn/Uppercase Print (Radu Jade, Rumania) Days (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan) There is No Evil (Mohammad Rasoulof, Germany, Iran) Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, NZ) Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time (Lili Horvat, Hungary) Drive My Car (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Japan)
Honorable Mention: Passing (Rebecca Hall, US) You Will Die at Twenty (Amjad Abu Alala, Sudan) Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, US)
Sean Axmaker
1. The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhall, US) 2. The Green Knight (David Lowery, US) 3. The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, US) 4. Spencer (Pablo Larrain, US/UK) 5. Drive My Car (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan) 6. The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier, Norway) 7. The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, New Zealand) 8. Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma, France) 9. Quo Vadis, Aida (Jasmila Zbanic, Bosnia & Herzegovina) 10. Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, US)
Runners-up and honorable mentions: Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Løve, France/Sweden), C’mon, C’mon (Mike Mills, US), A Hero (Asghar Farhadi, Iran/France), The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, US), Last Night in Soho (Edgar Wright, UK), Passing (Rebecca Hall, US), Pig (Michael Sarnoski, US), Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman, US), The Souvenir Part II (Joanna Hogg, UK), Titane (Julia Ducournau, France)
Surprises and joys: Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (Josh Greenbaum) – a whimsical comedy played for utter absurdity that came along just when I needed a belly laugh. Get Back (Peter Jackson) – an utterly immersive experience and an unexpectedly joyous exploration of creation and collaboration.
Dakota Johnson and Olivia Colman in “The Lost Daughter.” Photo credit: Yannis Drakoulidis/Netflix
On September 28, 2021, the Seattle film community (and many other communities) lost a mainstay in Tom Keogh, and I lost my closest friend. Tom wore different hats in his life, but his interest in movies and his passion for writing about them was a constant.
I am sure I will write and talk about Tom many times in the future, but I thought it would be good to let him speak in his own voice. Thus we are re-printing a piece Tom wrote for The Informer, the monthly newsletter of the Seattle Film Society, in November 1984. This in itself was a kind of memorial: Truffaut had just died, and I wanted to do a tribute in The Informer. So I published a program note I’d written about Jules and Jim, and Tom wrote this piece on The Wild Child, which the SFS has just screened on a bill with Truffaut’s short, Les mistons.
I thought the piece, which begins with an adolescent memory, marked a turning point in Tom’s writing. I believe Tom did too. Some of his obsessions are here, and his communion with cinema, and his strong feeling for childhood. This piece is insightful on a particular film, but it also shows you a writer – which is what good film writing does. I hope it helps you appreciate our friend. (Thanks to Marni Wiebe-Keogh and Kevin Keogh for their blessing and the photo of Tom.) – Robert Horton
‘The Wild Child’
The Wild Child
by Tom Keogh
In the relations between artist and critic, everything takes place in terms of power, and curiously, the critic never loses sight of the fact that in the power relationship he is the weaker even if he tries to hide the fact with an aggressive tone; while the artist constantly loses sight of his metaphysical supremacy. The artist’s lack of perspective can be attributed to emotionalism, sensitivity (or sentimentality), and certainly to the more or less powerful dose of paranoia that seems to be his lot.
When I was a critic, I thought that a successful film had simultaneously to express an idea of the world and an idea of cinema; La règle du jeu and Citizen Kane corresponded to this definition perfectly. Today, I demand that a film express with the joy of making cinema or the agony of making cinema. I am not interested in those films that do not pulse.
–Francois Truffaut, “What Do Critics Dream About?“
Seventeen years ago, I was a fat, morbid Catholic schoolkid in dreamland, sitting politely in a rented movie theater in Honolulu with a thousand other Catholic schoolkids who were, largely, running amok and having a better time than me for it. Why I was missing my freshman English that day and even (shudder) mixing with girls for this, I didn’t know. Then a local priest, popular with kids for his gentleness and slightly maverick reputation, walked slowly in front of the screen and quieted everyone.
“This is an experiment,” he said. “I asked your schools to let you be here for something new. I want you to really look at this movie today. Look for symbols, especially Christ symbols. See if you can understand why the hero is a Christ symbol. Then go back to your schools and talk about it.”
I looked. It was the first time I really looked at a movie at all: On the Waterfront. Afterward, I sensed there was more to talk about than how many times Marlon Brando fell and rose again, unaided, Christ-like, before wobbling all the way to the dock and redeeming the lifeless workers, but it didn’t matter. “Christ symbols” gave me a strange way to read a movie, but I got the idea I could do better. There was something living in the film, and now, between coming out of the closet about loving rock and roll (the anti-Christ in grade school; a valuable teaching tool in high school) and a desire to see more films, I had something to do with myself. Enter Francois Truffaut.
A belated welcome to 2021 with one last look back at the best releases of 2020.
It goes without saying that this has been an unusual year in every way. It is no less true for the year in cinema, as theaters shuttered across the nation (in Seattle, they were shut down for more than half of 2020). Many films were delayed by studios, some independent films chose the Virtual Cinema route, other films went the more tradition video-on-demand, and an unprecedented number of major films debuted directly to streaming services. That leaves the question “What qualifies as a 2020 film?” more open to interpretation. It also disperses the releases across a more varied landscape, making it harder to see everything that one might have access to in more normal years. That’s one reason our annual accounting is delayed this year. We’re just trying to grapple with the changes and catch up with what we can.
With that noted, here are the lists of Parallax View contributors and friends.
Contributors listed in alphabetical orders. Films listed in preferential orders (unless otherwise noted)
Sean Axmaker
1. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt) 2. Nomadland (Chloé Zhao) 3. Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov) 4. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman) 5. Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen) 6. News of the World (Paul Greengrass) 7. The Assistant (Kitty Green) 8. Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell) 9. Possessor (Brandon Cronenberg) 10. The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannel)
Absolute joy in a hard year: Bill and Ted Face the Music (Dean Parisot) and American Utopia (Spike Lee)
Great drama, dubious history: Mank (David Fincher) and The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin)
And a few more memorable films (in alphabetical order): Ammonite (Francis Lee), Bacurau (Juliano Dornelles and Kleber Mendonça Filho), Corpus Christi (Jan Komasa), Da Five Bloods (Spike Lee), Emma. (Autumn de Wilde) (the last film I saw in a theater), One Night in Miami (Regina King), Palm Springs (Max Barbakow), Sound of Metal (Darius Marder), The Vast of Night (Andrew Patterson), Wolfwalkers (Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart)
Vasilisa Perelygina and Viktoria Miroshnichenko in ‘Beanpole.’ Photo credit: Kino Lorber
David Coursen (Washington, D.C.)
1. Dead Souls (Wang Bing, China) 2. Small Axe: Red, White and Blue (Steve McQueen, UK) 3. Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee, U.S.) 4. Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov, Russia) 5. Small Axe: Alex Wheatle (Steve McQueen, UK) 6. Young Ahmed (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Belgium) 7. The 40-Year-Old Version (Radha Blank, US) 8. The Assistant (Kitty Green, U.S.) 9. Atlantiques (Mati Diop, Senegal) 10. (Tie): Small Axe: Mangrove/Lovers Rock/Education (Steve McQueen, UK)
Honorable Mention: Uncut Gems (Josh and Benny Safdie, U.S.), Bacurau (Kleber Filho and Juliano Dornelles, Brazil)
And thanks to MUBI for, among much else, introducing me to the work of Yuzo Kawashima.
Jake Horowitz and Sierra McCormick in ‘The Vast of Night.’ Photo credit: Amazon Studios
Robert C. Cumbow
I watched about 230 movies during 2020 (and the few weeks since), but only 14 were 2020 films. Of those, seven make my Top 10. I’d call them the most interesting films of 2020 that I saw, rather than the best, because I saw so few 2020 releases. Lots of catch-up to do in 2021. Most looking forward to Tenet and Synchronic.
First Cow When Forever Dies Bacurau Vast Of Night The Invisible Man Beanpole A Muse
My best home movie-watching experiences of the year were: Beau Travail on Criterion The Grey Fox on Blu-ray at last Mädchen In Uniform from Kino
I also loved catching up with: Dragged Across Concrete Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice
Micheal Ward and Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn in ‘Lovers Rock.’ Photo credit: Amazon Studios
Kathy Fennessy
1. House of Hummingbird (Kim Bora) 2. Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen) 3. The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell) 4. Possessor (Brandon Cronenberg) 5. Mangrove (Steve McQueen) 6. Bacurau (Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles) 7. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman) 8. Zombi Child (Bertrand Bonello) 9. Relic (Natalie Erika James) 10. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)
Frances McDormand in ‘Nomadland.’ Photo credit: Searchlight Pictures
Robert Horton
(as published at Scarecrow Blog) 1. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt) 2. Nomadland (Chloé Zhao) 3. Gunda (Victor Kossakovsky) 4. Fourteen (Dan Sallitt) 5. Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen) 6. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman) 7. Ammonite (Francis Lee) 8. (tie) Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov) Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell) 10. French Exit (Azazel Jacobs)
Very close to making the last spot: Major Arcana, And Then We Danced, The 40-Year-Old Version, Babyteeth, Bacurau, Sound of Metal, The Assistant, The Invisible Man, La Verite, Vast of Night, Collectiv, Sorry We Missed You
Carey Mulligan in ‘Promising Young Woman.’ Photo credit: Focus Features
Richard T. Jameson
First Cow Nomadland The Vast of Night Lovers Rock Beanpole Mank Promising Young Woman Never Rarely Sometimes Always The Assistant A White, White Day The Trial of the Chicago 7 / News of the World
Sidney Flanigan and Talia Ryder in ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always.’ Photo credit: Focus Features
Kathleen Murphy
First Cow Beanpole Nomadland Promising Young Woman Never Rarely Sometimes Always Lovers Rock (Small Axe) Ammonite The Vast of Night A White, White Day The Assistant
Gillian Anderson’s performance as Lily Bart in The House of Mirth is weirdly un-modern — the actress seems to have tapped directly into the mindset of the Edith Wharton novel, to a style predating ironic distance. Anderson maintains this even though the film’s dialogue and line readings are (rightly so) pitched in a way that heightens the artificial nature of the New York social scene, circa 1905. Anderson, whose performance often has a trapped, corseted intensity, gets Lily’s tragedy: It’s not that Lily doesn’t understand the rules of the game — it’s that she does, but she thinks her wit and beauty can skirt that calcified code.
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